Day three was a very fun day! We started off by taking a boat tour, and took a stop at the Tigre Municipio. We were lucky to have the opportunity to tour the inside of the building and the ambulance boat. This public service is provided by government funding and serves many people in the area. This clinic offers a variety of services and is essential to this local community. I found it super interesting that, compared to the previous hospital centers we have visited, which all use paper, they use digital client history.
After we took a pitt stop for lunch, we took the van over to the San Isidro Public Hospital. We first listened to the director of the hospital speak about the hospital and the funding they receive from the government. One thing I got from this speech was that their system is very confusing and complicated. The hospital is primarily funded by the municipality, and the director mentioned that it also gets support from the province because of the crossover of patients from neighboring municipalities. I thought that this was super interesting that, due to the high reputation that this hospital holds, it gets crowded very easily, which then causes problems like capacity issues and financial problems for them. We were then able to see the intensive care unit and the step-down unit. It was really fascinating to see how their ICU compares to America’s. I also realized that in Argentina, they do not have privacy laws, as we do in America. During the tour of the ICU, I also learned that, in a large hospital, everything is primarily on paper, including patient records. Overall, it was intriguing to see how this hospital compares to other care centers such as Tigre and Austral.
One thing that really stood out to me from the director’s presentation was how much the Hospital Central de San Isidro is trying to improve its system. Last year, they invested a lot of money into new machines and technology for the hospitals, but now they want to focus more on preventative care and education so people are not coming to the emergency room for minor illnesses like colds. This is important because the hospital handles around 500 surgeries a month and hundreds of emergency consults every day, so they need to prioritize patients with serious conditions. The director also talked about some of the hospital’s biggest challenges, including a lack of efficiency, communication problems between different levels of government, and past corruption in leadership. I thought it was really interesting to learn how these issues affected funding and organization within the hospital, and how they are now working to rebuild and improve the system. This showed me how health departments must constantly balance funding between hospitals and primary or preventative care, because investing more in prevention can reduce overcrowding and allow hospitals to focus on serious emergencies and major illnesses.
